Have you had any “almost too good to be true” experiences?

Parent Cafe
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Time to share some good/happy/almost too good to be true experiences. Have you had any? Please share. We can all use some good news.

As some know, my DH hurt himself in a fall while we were overseas, and in the process lost his 1 mo old phone in the rocks on a sea wall. The bummer news is that he will need surgery this week, but the good news is that I got a call from someone with a phone # from one European country that they had been traveling in the other European country that we had been visiting and they found DH’s phone!! It was somewhat damaged and had gotten wet, but it clearly powered up (they were able to get my # from the phone and showed us, via whatsapp, that the phone powered on (though my DH had remotely set the phone that it was lost and put my contact # on it). The person recontacted us when they got back to their home country, is arranging to pack it up and ship it (my DH will pay for that) but they won’t accept any “reward” money my DH offered. There are good people left in this world.

Other stories please!

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I am not completely sure how this one ended, but we had a similar situation from the other side. We were visiting a small city in eastern Canada, back when cell phones were flip phones without any security. Walking to dinner we found a phone sitting on a park bench. We just called the last number that the phone had called and left a message telling them where to find the lost phone.

We passed by the same park bench on the way back from dinner and the phone was gone. I like to think that the right person found it, but we never found out.

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I was to go to far east on vacation with my family. Two days prior to leaving while packing, I couldn’t find my passport. I remembered the last time I had it was when I was at Chicago airport the day before. I called the lost and found at the airport. Ic ouldnt believe it when they said they had it. They overnighted it to me and saved the trip.
I was in Tokyo shopping with my sister in law. When I got back to their house I realized my diamond bracelet was gone. We went back to a store we were at to see if it was there. Yes, they found it and out it in their safe. They went to get it for me right away. It would never have happened in NYC.
10 years ago I was at a very low point of my life. I was out of job for 6 months. I contacted a mentor. He made a phone call on my behalf and I was offered a job before Christmas. My career took a different turn for the better. I will always be grateful.
There are a lot of good people in the world.

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Another one- older s, after several years in the working world, was in the process of applying to MBA programs, and in an essay explained his goal of working in a certain sector and mentioned a specific, what was then, a small company. But instead of business school, he got a job directly with his dream Company!

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My mother had a diamond ring…which is now mine. At work one day, the diamond disappeared. This was in a major hospital, and the diamond could have been anywhere. A message was hung (because this was way before email, etc) for people to be on the lookout for a loose diamond. This was updated for a few months and frankly my mom thought the diamond was just lost forever.

About a year later, she received a call. Someone found this diamond in the bottom of a patient chart (remember those?), and it was returned.

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This one from “the other side” -
My ex husband and I were at a beach like area with some other people.
Someone (not with us) lost the diamond from their engagement ring.
My husband started scooping sand (I think it was more like sandy dirt - we were not on the ocean but a river), and amazingly, he found the diamond!

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We were in Italy when we were married for a bit. We were back packing and taking the trains from city to city center. We stayed in this private hotel kinda like an Airbnb but they didn’t have those back then. Lol. My wife always leaves her jewelry on something like the night stand. But there was like a glass candy dish, so this is where she left her diamond ring . We left and went one train city over and noticed she doesn’t have her ring on. We that next afternoon take a train ride back. Once we get to the hotel the owner is on the top balcony looking over, looking for us. An older women like a grandmother. She notices us and we wave. She runs downstairs and has tears streaming down her face holding the ring. We all have tears in our eyes now. What a beautiful person.

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Aside from my family, the best thing that happened in my life started as a minor car accident.

I was an uninsured driver, aged 20. Dad paid all my college expenses so the deal was that I was responsible for my own car insurance. I was clueless and thought I was a great driver. I didn’t see why I needed to waste all that money. I didn’t get car insurance and dad never asked to see proof.

It’s 1984’ish. I pull up to Hermosa Beach and open my car door, just as a BMW drives by. A handsome yuppie I will call Brent steps out of the now-bashed up car. I tell him I don’t have insurance and I will pay cash to have it repaired. He accepts that. I have to fess up to my dad, who agrees to give me the $1500 for the repair, on the condition that I pay him back and immediately get insurance. Dad was none too pleased.

Brent and I chat on the phone about practicalities. During the conversation, it’s clear he is interested in more than just the car and he eventually asks me out on a date. I am a new wave princess who would never date a yuppie, and I politely tell him no. I think everything will be dandy because his damage has been paid for.

Then comes the letter from the DMV. The penalty at the time for being an uninsured motorist was automatic suspension of your driver’s license. My license was to be suspended for 6 months. This is a complete disaster in So Cal, where there was virtually no public transport. My parents both worked full time, and my siblings had moved out already. I wouldn’t be able to drive myself to work or college. So I had to escape.

I found a study abroad program through my university. Dad agreed to fund this, but I think he didn’t see any realistic options. Despite being furious with me, he viewed it as a chance for me to have an interesting experience and get college credit. I would leave right away for the introductory session, then start the program. I ended up being overseas for 8 months.

This event transformed my life in ways I am still grateful for every day. If Brent hadn’t been driving by at just the right time so that I could smash his door, and if he hadn’t sought revenge for being spurned, I am 100% certain that everything about the life I live today would simply not exist. I learned so much about myself and the world by studying abroad. Yes, my stupidity ended up giving me a life that is too good to be true. Brent, if you’re reading this, thanks!

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So interesting! A real “butterfly effect” story.

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Another ring story. Friends had a great day after the wedding party at a lake. Husband dove into the cold water, and his new wedding ring came off. Water was about 20 feet deep where this happened. Folks tried to look for it, but water was too deep.

We called a friend who knew scuba divers who would love to dive in this lake. But they couldn’t come for a few days. Lake has a sandy bottom, so there was no guarantee. Well…in addition to a LOT of other junk…they found that wedding ring. I asked them how they did it. They used an underwater light and looked for anything that shined.

I was the one who got to make the phone call to the bride and groom, and they were so happy!

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My h left his prescription sunglasses in a private cab in London last summer that was arranged by our ship. . We tried calling the ship and they said they would try to get word to the driver but called back later that they didn’t have the driver’s information and they were leaving port and couldn’t reach the contract company either. The driver ended up finding them at the end of his day and drove 2 hours into London to our hotel to drop them back off.

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Wow, he turned you in to the DMV???

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I wondered that too!

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My father had a similar experience with his wedding ring on a Cape Cod beach years ago.

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Yep. Maybe I should go back to being uninsured and see how it goes? :rofl:

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Have you ever out of curiosity looked him up to see what he’s up to now. Karma can be amusing.

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You know, I can’t actually remember his name. It was probably something very ordinary, like John. I remember the BMW and I remember him as this kind of 80’s yuppie:

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He drove a car like this:

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My daughter, adopted from China and reportedly abandoned at almost 8 months of age, was assigned a birthdate that is all halves and doubles of mine–her month is half, day is half, last two digits of year are double.

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My youngest son really wanted to attend graduate school for aerospace engineering (his bachelors) but could not afford the out of state tuition, nor could we and told him this prior to entering college. His mechanical engineering roommate from undergrad introduced him to one of his graduate professors at lunch and as they were talking, he offered my son to interview for a graduate research assistant position covering full MS ME tuition, 40 hour work week around your classes and $24k annual salary (taxable W2) - he never realized they would pay for it if he just moved a little sideways from Aero to MechE - it also broadened his job ops as they came fast and furious with his minor in CS as well. That introduction from his roommate was a blessing.

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Your story reminded me of something like that. My aunt and uncle adopted a child. The child was due on my aunt’s birthday and born on my uncle’s. Seemed like a sign from the universe.

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